MOUNT VERNON — Lt. Col. Piers Wood, USAR (Ret.), will speak on “The Exaggeration of the Military Role in the War on Terrorism” at 11 a.m. Thursday, Nov. 29, in Shaw Lounge of The Commons at Cornell College. Admission is free.
Wood graduated from West Point in 1966 and retired in 1994 after 28 years of military service, both active and reserve. During his early commissioned service he commanded artillery units in Germany and Vietnam. He was in the combat zone for his entire year in Vietnam. He earned the Silver Star and two Bronze Stars with the combat V.
In subsequent years he was assigned to high-level staffs in NATO, the history faculty at West Point and again to command. He was chief of staff at the Center for Defense Information from 1986 to 2000, when he became involved in the start-up of a new national military research organization, Military Insights.
Wood has been critical of the massive over-funding for the Pentagon while domestic needs suffer. He supports limited use of U.S. ground Special Forces, but is critical and not optimistic of any significant success in “rooting out” terrorist cells.
His talk is sponsored by Advocates for Peace Equity and Justice.